


Embrace The Darkness

by kallistob



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Credence is a Lethifold, Graves is a Mess, Lethifold - Freeform, M/M, Magical Creatures, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Powerful Credence, blame Grindelwald for that, gellert grindelwald (mention), tina goldstein (appeareance), why do i love making him suffer
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-07
Updated: 2017-04-07
Packaged: 2018-10-16 00:28:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10560314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kallistob/pseuds/kallistob
Summary: There's a creature killing people left and right in New York, and Graves offers himself as bait to stop it.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this wonderful piece of fanart by @questionartbox : 
> 
> http://questionartbox.tumblr.com/post/158978406620/we-dangerous-ones-aaah-the-lethifold-one-of-my
> 
> Fic title from the song Become The Beast by Karliene.

* * *

 

They’d been searching the creature for days. For weeks. Weeks of turning up empty handed save for more dead bodies. They  _knew_  it was a Lethifold. Director Graves and his team were not so ineffective as to not recognize the tell-tale signs; and, just to be sure, they’d called in Newt Scamander, the Magizoologist who’d become famous thanks to his book in the past year and asked him to confirm their suspicions. 

He did.

A month ago.

And they were still not getting closer to finding the damn creature. The President was growing restless -they all were- and the wizarding community was living in fear. Add that to the ever present threat of Grindelwald, and Graves came home everyday with a pounding headache and a sense of having utterly wasted his time. 

The creature didn’t behave like it ought to, Newt said. Instead of hunting inside a specific, delimited territory, it seemed to move around the city, making it all the more difficult to localize or kill it. Or capture it, because of course Newt wouldn’t want even this creature to be killed, even though it had already made dozens of victims. 

The Lethifold preyed on humans and No-Majs alike. There was no distinguishable pattern as to how it chose its preys, thus no means to prevent further attacks. Lethifolds killed quietly and efficiently, wrapping themselves around their sleeping victims and suffocating them before digestion began, leaving only skeletons in their wake. The situation was desperate. 

After two other attacks, Graves had had enough. 

“Scamander,” he snapped. “Is there a way to attract a Lethifold to a specific place or person?” 

Newt frowned. They were at the MACUSA, gathered around a table with other Aurors and looking helplessly at the map glued to the wall, scattered with red dots, each pin-pointing one of the creature’s hits. 

“I will not be using someone as bait, Mr Graves. It’s too dangerous. You’ll have to think of something else.” 

“We’ve been trying to find it for weeks!  _Weeks!_  We are being called incompetent and uncaring and we cannot afford any more losses. Any more fear. I volunteer to be the damn bait if need be,” Graves’ nostrils flared, “But we  _are_  putting a stop to this.”  

Silence followed his statement. President Picquery bit her lips, seeming to considerate his words before she nodded. 

“If it can be done, it has to be done, Mr Scamander. This has been going on for too long already.” 

“But-” 

“Is it even possible? Newt?” Goldstein asked. 

“It … Could be,” Newt said with great reluctance. “Much like Dementors, Lethifolds are attracted to negative feelings and repulsed by light. I guess we could - power Mr Graves’ house with dark spells, or place creatures considered dark inside - nothing to worry about!” He said hastily upon seeing the look on Graves’ face, “but maybe Boggarts, Doxies, that sort of things. Mr Graves, you’d also have to concentrate on - negative feelings. Maybe use a Pensieve to review bad memories before you go to sleep, that sort of thing. And if we’re lucky… The Lethifold might just visit you during the night.” 

It was a long shot. 

One that wouldn’t be pleasant by any means. Graves was already half crying when he imagined the state of his house after their little setup - _Doxies in his curtains!_ \- and… Well. 

Bad memories. 

 

_They still haven’t noticed, Percy! Are you and I so similar after all?_

 

Graves shivered and shook himself out of his own head. “I’ll do it.” 

“Are you s-” 

“More people will die if we don’t do this,” Graves said resolutely. “No room for arguments. This ends tonight.” 

Newt nodded. “Will you be able to handle the Lethifold alone? We won’t intervene until we see the light of the Patronus through your windows. It would sense something was wrong if there are too many human presences in the house.” 

“Of course I’ll be fine,” Graves scoffed as if offended. “I’m not a third year anymore, Scamander.” 

Newt didn’t seem convinced, but he let it go. 

Truth be told, Graves hadn’t cast a Patronus in a long time - and after Grindelwald, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to again. But it was their best shot. He resolved to practice the charm later on.

After that, arrangements were made and it was only a matter of time before Graves found himself laying in bed, wand at the ready, trying not to listen to the wails of the ghoul hiding in his attic or the rumble of the Boggart in his closet. The good point, he supposed, is that he had no risk of falling asleep with all the ruckus around him. 

Not that he would have been able to, anyway. He was like a string ready to snap. Pale, exhausted from having had to relive his memories. Only two or three of  _him_  hid among the other bad ones - when he caught his first lover cheating on him, when he’d failed to protect one of his Aurors and it had resulted in their death, when Grindelwald had –

Stop. 

Deep breath. Focus. 

 

Why was there even a Lethifold in New York? Newt supposed it had been smuggled in by poachers, and if that was the case they were probably all dead. Not a great loss. 

 

Focus. 

 

Why couldn’t the damn thing show up already? His house didn’t reek of dark magic for nothing, damn it! 

 

Hey. Maybe it would attract Grindelwald instead. 

 

Maybe Grindelwald was the Lethifold. 

 

_Focus, Percival!_

 

His hands were trembling. Graves gritted his teeth. He couldn’t afford to lose it now. Not when they were so close to their goal. Even if - even if he had no means of defending himself. His attempts at a Patronus, cast in the privacy of his office between two meetings had been weak.  _Like him_. Flutters of smoke that barely looked like anything corporeal, and most certainly did not resemble the proud panther he once had at the tip of his wand. This was pretty much a suicide mission for him and he’d signed up for it anyway. What did that say about him?  

So lost was Percival in his thoughts that he didn’t notice the sudden change in atmosphere until it was too late. 

The commotions had stopped. 

The house was quiet. Too quiet. 

Percival felt all the air leave his lungs when he saw the black cloak glide along the floor of his room until it hovered at the end of his bed, its edges fluttering slightly. 

It was thin. It was hungry. 

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Percival chanted as he scrambled to get a grip, pointing his wand at the creature. “Expecto Patronum!” 

Nothing happened. The cloak seemed to tilt its head a little on the side, as if intrigued and amused by Percival’s antics, and Percival growled as he repeated with more conviction “ _Expecto Patronum!_ ” 

Wisps of white illuminated the room and vanished immediately. Cold dread filled Graves’ heart when the Lethifold came closer to him, and he quickly got off the bed and away from the creature, his heart beating madly in his chest. 

“Get away from me!” 

“You’re the first one who is awake when I’m here.” 

The voice made Percival stop dead in his tracks. It sounded like a young boy - a young man, but distorted, an echo, reverberating around the room and making Percival tremble from head to toe. 

“Expecto Patronum,” he tried again, weakly. 

He’d been a fool. A damn fool to think he could take on such a creature by himself. Grindelwald’s voice was ringing in his ears, a constant stream of  _weak fool pathetic pet weak useless weak weak_ before he begged it to stop aloud. 

“I haven’t done anything.” 

The voice spoke again, and amidst the chaos of his brain Percival managed to make sense of the words. Slowly, he unfurled from his position on the floor _(when did he fall?)_ and raised himself up on shaky legs. 

It was right. The Lethifold just had plenty of time to attack him, but it didn’t. 

“Why?” He asked.

The cloak seemed to shrug. “It’s entertaining to watch you.” 

Percival was at a loss for words. He struggled to find the right ones, staring at the Lethifold on his bed. 

“You- You’re not just a creature, are you?” 

“No.” 

A beat, and then the voice asked, “Would you like to see?” 

Percival closed his eyes. If he said yes, he was probably sure to die afterwards, as he doubted the price for seeing the Lethifold in his real form was naught, but if he said no… Well. The outcome wouldn’t be that much different. Crossing his arms, Percival braced himself and nodded. 

And slowly, ever so slowly, the black cloak unfolded itself, until he had not a creature in front of him but a young man, no older than twenty. The Lethifold hovered behind him, ready to protect its host if need be. The boy’s eyes were completely white, his clothes looked old and torn, but he was … 

“Beautiful,” Percival breathed. 

He could have sworn the boy blushed. 

“How did this happen? I’ve never seen anything like you.” His voice was a hushed, awed whisper. 

“I don’t know.” The boy’s voice sounded more normal, now that he wasn’t enclosed in the Lethifold. “I’ve always been this way as far as I can remember.” 

“Do you have a name?” Percival asked. He still couldn’t quite wrap his mind about the fact that he was having a conversation with a  _Lethifold_ , and that the Lethifold wasn’t just a creature but also  _someone_. 

“Credence.” 

“Credence.”

Percival stared, taking in the sight of him before he regretfully pointed his wand at the creature again. 

“You’ve killed people, Credence.” 

Credence stiffened, the Lethifold behind him growing bigger as it considered the threat Percival posed. “I can’t help it. Sometimes I just get so  _hungry_ … Please don’t attack me, Sir. You’ll die if you do. I’ll kill you.” 

Percival hesitated. 

He knew Credence was right. But could he, in good conscience, let the boy go? Having seen him?  _Knowing_  what he was capable of?  

No. Of course not. 

“Credence,” he said, hysterically not thinking about the fact that he was going to try and reason with a dark creature, “I will go out of that apartment. I have a friend, down there, who can help you, Credence. He will help you. You don’t have to live like this. A miracle like you - I don’t know what or who you are, but you need to stop this now or my people will kill you. We’ve been tracking you for weeks. You can’t just kill people, Credence. But my friend - my friend knows a lot about magical creatures, and he can figure out what you are and what to do with you. He won’t hurt you. I won’t hurt you either. Let me go, and I will talk to him and bring him upstairs, and no harm will be done to you, and you won’t do anything you might regret. Okay?” 

Credence had stayed silent through his babbling, and he tilted his head slightly when Graves paused to breath. “How do I know I can trust you?” 

”You… Don’t. Is there a way I can make you trust me?” 

Credence looked at him, then said, “Give me that piece of wood.” 

“What?” 

“The thing you carry in your hands. You were using it a weapon earlier. Trying to.” Graves flinched. “It clearly is extremely valuable to you. Give it to me, and I’ll let you go.”

Fuck. 

The kid was good. 

“I can’t do that.” 

Credence raised an eyebrow and the Lethifold spread itself menacingly. 

“Okay, okay! I’ll give it to you. Hold on.” 

Graves approached the kid slowly, mournfully handing him the only way he had to access to his magic anymore. Credence took it and turned it over in his hands, examining it with a raw curiosity that nearly made Graves laugh. 

“You may go,” Credence said, satisfied. Briefly, Graves wondered when he’d let a Lethifold rule his house, but he just nodded and walked across the room to the door. 

“I’ll be back shortly.” 

Mercy Lewis, he truly hoped Newt would know what to do with him. 

* * *

 

**Author's Note:**

> Don't hesitate to point out any typos, grammar or vocabulary mistakes as English is not my first language. 
> 
> You can come say hello on tumblr @thegaypumpingthroughyourveins ! :) 
> 
> I'm concentrating on my French!Graves story right now, but Lethifold!Credence is definitely something I want to explore more, so tell me what you think and stay tuned!


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